Children and Choices
by Xmarksthespot
Summary: Five times a member of the team had no choice but to kill someone... And the one time a member was more than ready to do it. For YJ Anon Meme; S1 Characters
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Children and Choices  
**By**: Xmarksthespot  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own YJ  
**Words**: 1,100+  
**Notes**: For the YJ anon meme: yjanon-meme . livejournal 477 . html ?thread=9437**  
**

**X-X-X-**

**_Artemis._**

"Punch him."

Dad's voice still rings in my ears sometimes late at night; the gruffness that only comes up behind his mask, hiding the sweet and caring person whom I know as my father.

I'm a good girl, I think. I obey dad's commands.

The man in front of me gives a low grunt when I throw my fist into his gut, not once, but twice in hopes that dad will notice how strong I've gotten since he's started training me. I slowly turn to face him, but not too violently, otherwise dad will notice how much space my hair takes up and threaten to cut it again – I don't want it cut; even if Jade isn't here anymore, I'm still Cheshire's Alice and I want my long hair. I secretly hope Jade will come back and see how long it's gotten. Maybe she'll tell me I'm a good girl too.

Dad interrupts my thoughts when he gives me another order.

"Kick him until his teeth fall out."

I feel an odd shiver down my spine and goose bumps along my arm, still unaccustomed to doing all this, but I oblige, twisting my body at an angle and continuously kick the man in the jaw. I try to ignore the blood on my new shoes – dad says I should be proud that my shoes are covered in blood. I think he got me white shoes on purpose.

My legs aren't as powerful as my upper body, so it takes me almost twenty minutes to see three teeth on the floor. I'm exhausted and I know dad isn't happy at my efforts, but I'm his baby girl and I want to see him proud of me. I keep kicking.

Finally, I see Sportsmaster move away from the brick wall he was leaning on and approach me. He puts a hand on my shoulder and I wonder if there's a grin behind that hard, white mask. I look into the eye holes for the answer to my question. They're relaxed and his eyebrows aren't slanted this time! I give him one of the largest grins that I haven't used in a long time since mom and Jade left, and there's a warm feeling rising in my chest. For once, I've done something right, and dad agrees with me.

"Good job, Artemis," he tells me, "you're a good girl."

I nod in response, turning around to face the direction of our apartment. Maybe dad will help me cook dinner tonight – that's always fun.

"Not yet, angel." He holds me back by the shoulder and I turn to look at him. I give him a frown, hoping he'll notice how upset I am. He did, after all, tell me this wasn't supposed to take a long time.

My eyes trail him as he walks to his duffle bag, which was mostly filled with sports equipment, but wasn't used for sports. At least, not regular people's sports. That's when I see him pull out the bow and arrow and I can feel my eyes widen.

"Is that…" I don't finish the sentence because dad has already handed it to me.

"Your own bow and arrow. Just like I promised." He then ruffles my hair like how I see most fathers treat their sons – I know dad wanted me to be a boy, so I don't complain, because it makes him happy. "Happy early birthday, angel."

My face instantly brightens and I look at the weapon in my hands again. I had been practicing with an older set at home and dad always said I had a knack for archery, but I never thought he would actually get me one.

I look up at dad again, and I'm about to thank him when I see his eyes lower dangerously.

"Artemis," he mutters in his deep, Sportsmaster voice.

I ignore the quick beating of my chest, because I should have gotten used to that voice a long time ago; I always heard him use it on Jade.

"Yes, dad?"

"How about we test this bow and arrow out?"

This confuses me because all of the target sets are at home or in the secret warehouses that he takes me to sometimes, and last time he told me Cam could be used as target practice while he talked to Mr. Mahkent, but none of that was here right now. Dad seems to realize this because he puts his hands on my shoulders again to guide me to my target.

"Kill him."

I look at dad in disbelief. He knew how much it had hurt Jade the first time she had to kill someone, why was he doing this to me now?

I hesitate and I guess dad sees me because he lifts my hands up into the air, in the perfect position to aim at the man's heart.

"But, dad, I… I'm not ready yet."

He shakes his head at me and walks to his bag again. He pulls out his own baseball bat and before I could blink, he whips it down towards the man's legs. The man screams and I cringe.

"See that, angel? It's not hard."

Dad continues to hit the man with his baseball bat, but only at his legs and arms – I didn't want to look away again; the last time I did that, dad was _not_ happy. Jade once told me that hearing the sounds of bones breaking wasn't hard once I got used to it, but this is the third time I've seen dad do this and it still bothers me. But I watch dad do it anyway, and I don't notice that my hands are trembling until I hear my arrow fall to the ground.

Dad stops and looks back at me.

"Artemis…" he starts and I drop myself to the ground to pick up the arrow. He steps away from the man in front of me before giving me a nod.

I look at my target again who was screaming louder than before. Cops aren't a good thing, dad told me that when they took mom away. If he keeps being loud like this, the cops will hear it and come. I don't want them to take away my dad too. I catch a glimpse of my dad before adjusting my bow and arrow.

I'm a good girl, I tell myself again. I shoot.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title**: Children and Choices  
**By**: Xmarksthespot  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own any copyrighted material  
**Words**: 1,400+  
**Notes**: I'm trying out different POVs for each chapter. Also, thanks for the reviews/favs/alerts for the previous chapter. There are a lot of run on sentences in this chapter, but I like to think that Wally thinks in run-ons anyway.

**X-X-X-**

_**Wally.**_

You breathe in, you breathe out. Just like what Uncle Barry taught you.

"_Don't get too excited, Wally,"_ Your uncle had said, _"You still don't have total control of your powers, so you don't want your heart to beat too quickly. Wouldn't want it to tire out, now would we?"_

But it doesn't work because your heart is still beating–_boom, boom, boom_ –against your chest and you can't hear anything else. That is, until your best friend shrieks and the masked man in front of you is laughing maniacally.

Your eyes become wide as saucers and your mouth is dry; you can't scream anymore because he's gagged you so all you can do is cry – it's what you're best at, after all. Always crying, poor, little Wally West, picked on by the big kids at school, disappointing your mommy and daddy.

You try vibrating your wrists, but you fail and all you get is rope burn along your arms – they begin to sting. It's only been four months since you've left the hospital with the Flash's powers, and yet you still haven't managed to perfect it. You still can't run without tripping over your own feet, let alone vibrating through solid objects.

Dick screams again, and you tell yourself that you're a fool for convincing him to go to the park without telling the adults. You were too impatient to wait for Alfred who was working away in the kitchen for Uncle Barry and _you_. Your impatience is what's going to kill Dick, and then kill you.

But then you think, _"No…He's not going to kill Dick. He wants money. Dick has to be alive if he wants money from Bruce."_ Of course, _Dick_ has to be alive; not you.

This scares you even more than when you had donned on your costume and faced the Rogues along with Flash for the first time, especially when you don't even have your costume on you. Still, you hope that the costumed heroes will come through those doors soon enough because you can only close your eyes for so long before Dick's pleas yank them open again.

The man has a knife against Dick's neck and you swear you can see blood dripping from it. You want to tell the masked man to stop, but you can only muffle through that gag and soak it wet with your tears. You constantly twist and turn, hoping that the ropes around you will loosen but they don't because you weren't strong enough and the ropes were knotted too tightly.

"_Dick, Dick!"_ You want to say. You want to go back to playing inside the manor with your new friend, or perhaps talk to him on the phone while you are in Central – _safe_ Central. You want this to end, because you're twelve and twelve was too small of a number to die at.

You try to kick your legs in the air, hoping it'd do something, but it's also tied to the chair, so your body continues to struggle. You feel sweat dripping from your face and your breaths quickening. Suddenly that _boom, boom, boom_ grows louder and you have a feeling you'll black out soon because your body is working so hard to a point of exhaustion, even though you're just sitting in one spot.

You can't close your eyes though, you _can't_ leave Dick. He was your first and only friend who accepted you before you were a hero, and understands you now even more because you _are_ a hero. And since you are a hero, you can't leave him.

You pull your arms back and forth again, hoping to loosen the ropes and you keep doing it despite the rope burn and despite how wet your face has gotten from watching the man torture Dick; he's waiting for his accomplices to show up with the bag of money from Wayne before they make their escape and in the meantime, decided to have some fun with the boys and his collection of knives.

You have to save Dick. You have to, youhavetoyouhavetoyouhaveto…

Suddenly, your hands are free and for a moment, you think that you managed to get the ropes loosened, until you feel some blood trickle down your nose and you look over your shoulder to see the ropes still knotted. You've _finally_ vibrated through a solid object, but you waste no time in celebrating or attempting to do it with your feet.

You pull off the gag around your mouth. Your hands fumble while you undo the knots around your ankles, one reaching up to wipe away from the blood from your nose– you _hate_ the smell of rust, and the colour of blood, which was a _much_ darker shade of red than your Uncle Barry's suit. Your nose continues to bleed, but you stopped caring. After all, you're finally _free_.

But what do you do now? Do you run away and get help, leaving Dick alone with the kidnapper? If you leave and the kidnapper notices, he'll find out who you really are. If you sit still, you might as well not have tried to free yourself from the ropes. If you face him, you're dead.

You're useless, you realize. You can't do anything without your Uncle Barry or the League. If Dick was in your situation, he would've known what to do. He wouldn't have stood there, nose bleeding, heart beating rapidly to a point where you feel lightheaded. And to make things worse, your stomach is growling hungrily and it's interrupting your thoughts, preventing you from thinking straight.

But then Dick cries out again and you panic. You quickly run up behind the masked man and try to yank him away, but he's too heavy and you end up pulling both him and yourself to the ground.

"Wally!" Dick calls out your name, but before you can react, you look straight into the masked man's eyes and you could _feel_ his grin on you.

He gets up much quicker than you and you don't fail to notice the knife glued to his hands, not even hesitant to throw them at you. So you do what you do best, next to crying, even before you met Uncle Barry: you run.

Your speed must have thrown the kidnapper off because he falters for a second, unsure of where you've disappeared to. You know you have no super strength, no tech gadgets or any other super powers. You can only run for so long before your body collapses and the man gets you, so your only choice is to stop him.

You grab onto the chair that you were just tied to earlier on – it seemed like hours ago, now that you think about it, but your perception of time has been skewed for a while now – and you lift it as high as you can into the air. Your legs are still moving rapidly, but you don't notice and all you can do is make sure you don't miss.

You don't.

You hit him in the head just as he turns around and now all you can see is blood and a body and oh my God, _so_ much blood, somuchsomuchsomuch!

You don't even realize you've fallen flat onto your bottom, squirming away from the body. You don't even hear Dick calling out your name because all you can see is the fallen masked man and all you can hear is his heavy breathing until it stops and suddenly the world around you is mute.

Time is skewed for you, so what seemed like hours were probably minutes or seconds, and after some time has passed, someone puts their hands on your shoulder; you turn to see your uncle, in costume, smiling weakly at you, and then you turn again to see the Dark Knight wrapping his arms around his ward. And that's when you realized what had happened.

If you had waited fifty-six more seconds, the man could've lived, and Batman and Flash would've been here. If you had waited six minutes and fourteen seconds, the man could've lived and the cops would've been here. If you had waited, you wouldn't have been a murderer.

You were just _too_ impatient.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title**: Children and Choices  
**By**: Xmarksthespot  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own any copyrighted material  
**Words**: 1,800+  
**Notes**: Sorry for the long wait. Again, I've tried to take a different approach to how I reveal the team's accidental murders. I originally had a completely different idea for Superboy's chapter, but then this inspiration came about and I ended up writing it instead

**X-X-X-**

_**Conner.**_

They say that 2010 should have been a big year for Lois Lane, what with her affiliations with the Justice League, and her being the reporter who was rumoured to be dating Superman (rumours were later denied as it was confirmed that Lane was, in fact, happily engaged to fellow reporter, Clark Kent).

The year 2010 should have been a big year for her because that was the year the number of heroes on planet Earth doubled, and the number of villains tripled.

And while she did report and investigate the happenings around the world, they say that she missed out when it came to reporting the little things that only Lane would have the guts and sources to report.

Such as the appearance of Superboy.

Lois Lane could have written dozens of articles on Superboy.

She wrote two.

She published one.

.

**THE BOY OF STEEL: THE NEW HERO**

_BY: LOIS LANE_

August 4, 2010

The existence of superheroes is not new to us, as we are—luckily—constantly being watched over and saved by the heroes, either a part or independent of the Justice League. But while we are used to grown men, women, and even extraterrestrials coming to our aid, in recent years, it seems that a new generation has come up to the mantle—one that does not reach as high as our beloved heroes, and I mean that quite literally.

Kids.

Children whom we assume to be no older than twelve or thirteen, some just at the verge of adulthood, and some in between, are now risking their lives and patrolling the streets alongside their mentors—our heroes—so that we not only have the extra protection and safety we yearn for, but so we are promised we will not be left alone for generations to come.

And while many critics disprove of the idea, especially at the time of Robin's initial appearance alongside Gotham City's Batman, citizens all over the country, and eventually, all over the world, have been welcoming Earth's new heroes. With the Boy Wonder being the first of the sidekicks, followed by Star City's Speedy, Central's quick-witted and quick-paced Kid Flash, and finally Atlantis's much to be learned about, Aqualad.

But the world has not met all of the young heroes yet. Sure, there's Dakota City's Rocket, partner of Icon—both highly anticipated to become affiliated with the Justice League in the near future. Not to mention Chicago's Miss Martian, a rumoured fellow inhabitant of Mars and partner of League founder, Martian Manhunter. Then there is Green Arrow's new protégée, Artemis—potentially named after the Greek Goddess of the Hunt and wielder of a bow and arrow herself.

And then there is Superboy.

Who is Superboy, you ask? He is the Boy of Steel, a definite Kryptonian with an identical face and almost all of the powers that Metropolis's beloved Superman has. He is the teammate of Robin, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Artemis, and Aqualad, all of whom are now in allegiance with the Justice League unlike fellow sidekick, Speedy, who has recently traded his feathered hat and unique name for a more mature, independent persona: Red Arrow.

But why has this boy not been seen with his mentor, Superman? What is so different between this hero—this young teenager, no more than sixteen—that keeps him hidden from the spotlight? And how is he related to Superman exactly? The Man of Steel himself confirmed that he is the last of his species, and now there is a boy with his face and his family insignia across his chest, with his exact powers.

Had Superman been wrong or was it all a lie to begin with? Is this boy his son? Why is the Justice League keeping his existence a secret from the world? There are many questions revolving around Earth's newest hero, and while we may never know the answers to them, we are sure of one thing: the world is always in need of a hero, and it is better with him than without.

.

.

**SUPERBOY: THE TRAGIC HERO**

_BY: LOIS LANE_

October 29, 2010

Last week on October 16 at exactly 6:00PM, _Maryland Enterprises_, a law firm in the heart of Metropolis, was taken over by a mysterious gang whose identities are still under police investigation. Of the twenty floors, thirteen were evacuated with the remaining seven, containing at least fifty employees per floor, were held hostage at gunpoint.

The leader of the mysterious group was at the top of the building with John Maryland, CEO of the company, his assistant, six other business associates, and the reporter from the Daily Planet: me.

We were threatened to kneel to the floors as Maryland allowed the leader access to all of the company's personal files through his computer. Such files would be enough to not only provide false records to the criminals, ultimately earning them millions of dollars, but can potentially destroy every single person in Metropolis financially.

At 7:14PM, the Young Justice League—their current fan-given name until League confirmation—arrived, with each member initially splitting into pairs and taking down the criminals floor by floor until they had reached the top. But their work did not come without an entrance. Just before the law firm's database could be stolen and falsified data created, all electronic devices in the building, including hand held ones, were flashing with Robin's insignia, temporarily freezing any transactions. And while many of us had believed that he was the leader of this new group, it was Aqualad who took center stage in providing his teammates with instructions.

The team did not communicate openly, but it was clear how well they interacted with one another. With the help of these young heroes, the gunmen quickly went down, with the exception of the leader.

According to the data provided by the forensics team so far, the leader of the gang had a chemical compound injected into his bloodstream, which provided him with the following symptoms:

Increased immunity, increased strength, rapid healing, delusions, and hallucinations.

The name of the compound has not been identified.

As a result, the Young Justice League team had a more difficult time trying to stop their foe, who seemed eager to not only finish his job but take out the children. He had successfully knocked out Kid Flash and Artemis, and Aqualad had fallen through the floor down to the nineteenth floor. The youngest, Robin, was ensuring our safety while using his computer to prevent the law firm's information from being taken by the wrong hands.

At approximately 8:05PM, the leader of the villainous gang had a death grip around Miss Martian's neck; the young heroine apparently does not have the same powers as her mentor, Martian Manhunter, as she was unable to phase through his hold. That was when Superboy, the most mysterious hero, had elbowed the man in the back.

It was assumed that Superboy had knocked the leader unconscious.

However, with a quick check by Robin, who at 8:12PM announced the leader's lack of heartbeats, it was obvious that Superboy had killed the man. But to everyone in the room, it was not murder. There was no intention for the young hero to cause the death of the man who was close to killing us all; his only intention was to save his teammate.

"No," he yelled to his friends. "He should be knocked out, not dead. He should be knocked out! I only meant to knock him out."

Police say it is unconfirmed what will happen to Superboy and the city's connection with the League. Protestors continue to rally outside the courtroom every day to ensure that Superboy remains innocent, as it was for self defense purposes and that he had saved the hostages.

With this incident, it is proven that while the Young Justice Team has what it takes to be heroes, they are not yet on par with their mentors, especially Superboy, who has apparently no control of his powers. Though we have seen in the past few months since his debut, this hero has no mentor, no Superman to show him the ropes.

So the question is: should Superman hold the blame?

If a child commits a crime, their parent is held responsible for not raising them correctly. But what about Superman? Should Metropolis's dear Man of Steel be guilty of bloodshed because he has not taught Superboy to control his powers and prevent this from happening? Should he be responsible for the guilt that Superboy will forever feel

.

Lois stopped typing.

Taking in a deep breath, she slowly inched herself away from the screen in front of her, wheeling her office chair back and eventually craning her neck so that she could see the clear sky outside her window. In the distance, there was a familiar globe rotated on a golden axis with the words _The Daily Planet_ mounted on the globe.

Today had been her day off, but she felt unrested.

Suddenly, she pushed herself up and off the chair, spotting her purse in the corner of her room. She picked it up with haste, digging her belongings around before she could find her phone beneath the pile of trash.

She didn't even need to dial the number. The person she wanted to talk to was on speed dial.

"Clark Kent, Daily Planet," said the man on the other line.

"Smallville, I need you to tell Perry that I won't have that article in by tomorrow."

"What? Lois, you've been working on that article all week. You're the one who told Perry it was big, why are you scrapping it now?"

She looked back at her screen with a distraught feeling burying itself in her chest. She told him: "Because I have to, Clark." She paused. "And when you come home, I also need you to fetch me a café latte with whip cream and chocolate sauce drizzled on top. Extra chocolate. "

She could hear him clear his throat. Luckily for the two, they had known each other long enough for him to know that her feelings reflected on her coffee orders.

"Uh, Lois, did I do something wrong?"

"Yes. And we need to talk."

"Okay, I'll try to wrap this up as fast as I can and I'll meet you at home."

She hung up the call, but didn't bother setting it down. Rather, she dialed a foreign number which was given to her to use during emergencies.

"Lois?"

"Hi Bruce," she greeted, "I hope I'm not interrupting a meeting."

"I'm sure they can handle without me. What can I do for you?"

Lois gave her forever unfinished article a final glance before finally allowing herself to smile.

"I…I want to know about him. Superboy. And I want you to introduce me to him... I want to know him."


End file.
